U.S. Internet advertising surged 33 percent in 2004 to a record $9.6 billion, surpassing levels seen during the early Web boom, and will grow at a similar rate in 2005, according to data released on Thursday.

The figures bolster reports from individual advertisers who say they are moving more of their marketing budgets online as consumers devote more time to the Internet and fewer hours to television and other media.

The data also underscores breakaway earnings results for major Internet media companies and search engines like Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., as well as the digital divisions of traditional media companies like the New York Times Co.

"Interactive advertising has clearly become a mainstream medium and one that can no longer be ignored," said Greg Stuart, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Of course, history has already decided that the late 1990s will be remembered as the Internet's boom period, even though ad revenues are growing at a faster rate now then they were back then.

And that trend is not likely to change for the forseeable future: the Internet's demographics have to be far more appealing to media buyers than television, whose viewing demographic is only going to become greyer and greyer.

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